Ariadne's Secrets
by AngeloftheMorning1978
Summary: Can her marriage survive when Arthur learns she has lied to him about her past? When he finds out she has lied to him about everything? Takes place after the events of: Ariadne's Birthday, Arthur's Ghosts, Ariande's True Love, Hostage and Arthur's Secrets
1. Chapter 1

** Can her marriage survive when Arthur learns she has lied to him about her past?**

** In "Never Hold Back" I touched on Ariadne's past. She always told Arthur her mother committed suicide and that she was estranged from her father. **

** I've done a lot about Arthur's past, but not too much on Ariadne's. **

** Takes Place after the event's of "Ariadne's Birthday", "Arthur's Ghosts" and "Ariadne's True Love". **

**Ariadne's Secrets**

1.

~ Ariadne woke up to shouting and screaming. The voices of grown ups coming from the other room. Her father, was mad at her mother again and he was shouting. Ariadne curled into a tight little ball as she felt the cold of the room she was in.

She didn't have a bed and her mom had made a bed pallet to sleep on telling her not to complain. She was old enough now to understand this was not how normal people lived and to feel a kind of resentment to her parents for allowing their children to exist like this and do nothing about it.

She felt someone in the bed pallet shift and a small hand go around her waist.

"It's okay, Sammy." Ariadne said to her little brother. His small, willow thin body seeking hers for warmth.

It was winter time, and there was snow on the ground. The heat was shut off because her parents never had the power turned on. The power wasn't on because her parents couldn't afford it.

The family never had money. Everything they saw, was something they couldn't have. The past year, however, had been a good. Despite having no power, they had found and small house to live in. The landlord taking less rent in exchange for work that was promised to be done around the house. The work never got done and the small rent never scarped together because her dad had started drinking again.

Her mother telling Ariadne and her brother that if they had behaved and didn't make so much noise, their dad wouldn't drink. Ariadne, her mind sharp even at a young age, felt otherwise. Her dad was never home enough for they kids to bother him. He came home late and yelled at their mother. He was passed out by the time Ariadne dressed herself and Sammy for school.

"I'm hungry." Sammy said.

"Shh." She hissed back at him. She was hungry to and the cold was seeping under the thin blankets the pair were wrapped in.

Their mother had given them nothing to eat after they got home from school, and they had learned not to even ask. Dinner and after school snacks, that was for other people. Not them. They had gotten the free lunch and breakfast on school days, but the long hours until it was time to go to school again stretched out painfully.

Ariadne liked school. Despite her worn and poor fitting clothes, she belonged there. Her teachers adored her. Her tattered school bag filled with homework decorated with stickers and praise. Sammy, by contrast, struggled. He was placed in the special needs classes because he couldn't concentrate and didn't talk to anyone but his protective older sister.

But he liked school to. It was a safe place where he could eat hot food and it was always warm. Peaceful, until his sister came to get him and they walked home to a cold house full on angry adults.

Ariadne jumped when she heard her mother scream. She knew her dad was hitting her again. A fear that he might come into their room and start hitting them too took hold of her.

"Sammy, get up." Ariadne said pulling the blankets off them. The thin little boy shivering as the cold bit at them with sharp teeth.

"Why?" Sammy asked in a whining tone. More screams and cries came from the other room as her father was now in a full drunken rage.

"Put your shoes on, Sammy." Ariadne hissed to the little boy as the children shrugged on coats over their thread bare night clothes.

Sammy followed her instructions trustingly and dressed as best he could for a 7 year old. Ariadne, 2 years older, helped him zip up his too small coat.

"Come on, Sammy." She whispered as the sounds of their parents fighting grew worse.

It was still night as the children crawled out of the window and fell into the snow.

"Can we play in the snow?" Sammy asked.

"No." his big sister hissed as she pulled him along.

"Where are we going?" Sammy said as it started to snow again.

"School." Ariadne told him.

~The school yard was haunting in the dark. It was strange to see it empty as the two of them played on the swing sets.

"I'm cold." Sammy complained.

"I know. Me to." Ariadne said as she shivered under her inadequate clothes.

"Mom is going to be mad we ran away." Sammy said worriedly.

"We didn't run away." Ariadne said. "We went to school."

"Why do you always talk about running away?" Sammy asked sadly.

"I don't."  
"Yes you do. You show me pictures of all the places you want to live. None of them are here." He said.

"I want to see those places." She said simply. "There's more to the world then this place."

"Can I go with you?" Sammy asked.

"Of course. You and me always." Ariadne said pushing her brother higher on the swing.

_ Sammy's big brown eyes looking scared. _

_Ariadne screaming and screaming until she wasn't able to scream, cry or talk anymore. _

**18 years later...**

~ Ariadne woke to a little girl screaming.

"Mama! Papa!" Darcy sang out as she jumped into their warm, comfy bed. The happy child crash landing on Arthur who grunted out of a sound sleep.

"Wake up!" Darcy said to them. "Wake up!"

"Darcy!" Arthur said as the little girl with too much energy made to climb over Ariadne. Arthur shifted and moved a protective arm over his wife's body, blocking Darcy's advance. The shock of Darcy's surprise attack had made him more mindful of his wife's delicate condition.

"Darcy, _never_ jump on Mama like that again." Arthur told the little girl harshly.

"She didn't jump on me, Arthur." Ariadne said gently as the Architect was roused out of sleep. She leaned down and kissed Darcy on the forehead.

"Are you ready for breakfast?" She asked the girl with the curly blond hair.

Darcy smiled and nodded.

"I know she didn't land on you, she landed on _me_." Arthur said fitfully. "The one day we get to sleep in." He grumbled.

"What are you complaining about?" Ariadne smiled as she crawled out of bed. "Your not the one who was up at 5am every morning for a _month_ with morning sickness."

Arthur smiled as his eyes caught the sight of her abdomen. She was too early for the pregnancy to reveal itself yet, but they had just yesterday gone in for her three month exam.

"Are you still mad it's another boy?" He asked with that self satisfied smile he got when even he was particularly pleased with himself.  
"Yes." Ariadne snapped, but smiled at him. "I have to take all the pink baby stuff I got back. Some of it was really cute." She shrugged and pretend to think. "I guess I could always dress him up in it anyway." She mused.

"You most certainly will not." Arthur said forcefully. The Point Man sitting up out of the nest of warm coverings. Ariadne laughed as her husband embraced her.

"I better go check on Dominic." She whispered as he was kissing her in a way that showed he wanted something more.

"Alright. Better go and make sure my other _son_ is alright." He said proudly.

She shook her head as she left their bedroom and went to pick her one year old little boy out of his crib. Dominic was awake and waiting patiently for her to get him changed, dressed and started on his breakfast. It was the nanny's day off and no one in the family had to be anywhere. It was a day where everyone stayed in their sleep clothes and watched TV, movies, played games and did as little as possible.

~ Arthur was fixing Darcy her breakfast as Ariadne came back with Dominic, the baby cooing happily in her arms.

"Mama, I don't want another boy." Darcy complained. "I want a little sister."

Her child like belief that her parents could control such things at her whim.

"Well, so did I." Ariadne said sadly as she placed Dominic in his high chair.

"Ariadne!" Arthur laughed in mild shock.

His wife shrugged and smiled at him.

"Not a nice thing to say." He scolded as Darcy and the baby started eating their breakfast.

A knock on the door disturbed the blissful family.

"I'll get it." Ariadne said as the Point Man made to stand. "I'm already up."

She could hear Darcy singing and Dominic mimicking her in his baby talk as she answered the door.

A man stood there. One she didn't recognize. He was older and worn looking. His cheeks hollowed and his eyes sunken in. His dark haired peppered with gray and covered with an worn baseball cap.

"Ari?" He asked peering at her.

She looked him over curiously. No one, not since she was very young had someone called her that.

"Do I know you?" She asked.

"I should say that you better." The man said in his American accent. "Ari, it's me. Your dad."


	2. Chapter 2

2.

~ Ariadne felt her heart race and her vision become spotted with black.

'_Don't faint._' She told herself.

Quickly, she stepped out into the hall and closed the front door behind her.

"What... what are doing here?" She hissed at the strange looking man who, now that she took a hard look at him, did resemble her father. The years weren't kind to him.

She was filled with anger that this part of her past was showing up at her door unannounced and uninvited.

"I came to see you. Buddy of mine reads this magazine about business." The man explained as she looked over his worn, dirty jeans and working man's shirt. "Well, it was talking about this old boy named Arthur." He said her husbands name like is was a joke. "And it said he was CEO of this big company. That his wife's name was Ariadne. My buddy was like 'Chuck' ain't that your girl's name?' and I was wondering if it was the same." He said in his course back woods accent Ariadne had shed years ago.

She still couldn't believe her eyes that this man had tracked her down.

"Well, I called up to the company and said I was Arthur's father-in-law and I wanted to speak to him. They told me he didn't even live in America. What kind of shit is that?" He asked in disbelief as Ariadne felt her body being weighted down slightly.

"Those people wouldn't tell me where he lived and I had to find out online that you were living in France." He finished.

"Online?" She asked. "Wait, how exactly online?"

Her father was not computer savvy and she doubted that he would have hired a detective to locate her.

"Well, I typed in his name and yours and up pops this article about some crazy woman breaking into your home and trying to kill you. So here I am, your old man." He said with a triumphant smile.

Ariadne felt sick. As her father looked around the nicely decorated hall outside her apartment.

"This is a nice looking building. What's the rent around here?" He asked.  
"Dad, listen, I'm in the middle of something." Ariadne fumbled as she wanted to retreat back into her safe world again. The head of an ugly past resurfacing.

"I was wanting to take my Bumble Bee out to lunch. I don't speak French and no one here speaks English. I don't know why they can't learn English. I thought everyone speaks a little English. Why did you want to live in France anyway?"

"Dad, fine I'll meet you at the little cafe with the red and black awning in 30 minutes." She told him as she backed away from the strange ghost.

"Well, what about Arthur?" Her father said taking off his ball cap and revealing a head of thinning hair.

"He's at work." She stammered as she retreated back into the apartment. "I'll meet you there, just give me a few minutes."

~ Ariadne was breathing hard as ghosts were suddenly everywhere. Her brother Sammy, the judge, Miss Annie, Hugo and Victoria. They all stood and watched her as she locked her door and stood there shaking.

"Ariadne?" Came Arthur's voice.

She jumped as if he was a ghost.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

She turned and saw her husband holding the baby. Dominic was smiling and laughing. His oatmeal all over his face and clothes.

"Oh nothing." She said pulling her robe on tighter around her body. Trying to remember to act normal. Trying to remember how to talk without that backwoods accent she hadn't used in so long.

"Who was it?" He asked as she took the baby. Glad to feel her son's warm, little body next to hers.

"Oh, no one. Just a solicitor." She said.

"Have to talk to the doorman." Arthur grumbled. "He just lets anyone in the building. You would think after that happened with Becky, they would be more careful."

"I'll talk to him. I'm going to the store." She said distractedly.  
"For what?" He asked as he followed her into the nursery where she changed the baby's messy clothes and washed his face.

"Honestly Arthur, you got more food _on_ the baby then _in_ him." She laughed hoping to change the subject.

"You will be happy to know, Dominic fed himself this morning, and I think my son did a great job." Arthur said proudly. "I think he might be gifted." He added.

"I need you to watch the kids while I go out." She told him.

"Alright." He said as she retreated back to their room to dress. Darcy already hard a work on a new water coloring.

She dressed with lighting speed. Actually taking time to look over her clothes. Noticing for the first time that they were nice, brand name shirts, slacks and dresses.

'_No dresses._' She told herself as an ugly memory gripped her stomach and made her feel sick.

She put on the frumpy jeans she liked to wear and layered on a T-shirt, button up top and worn jacket she had stopped wearing.

She looked at the nice clothes in her closet. Clothes she never gave a thought about before now. There had to be thousands of dollars in clothing and shoes in front of her if not more. She grabbed her bag and thought better of it. Her bag was a very nice, classic name brand that went with everything. It was too trendy, too rich. She pulled out her old red purse she hadn't used since the Fischer inception and put her pocket book, cell phone and other items in it.

She spotted the Taser she normally kept in her everyday bag and tucked it into the red purse to. Arthur had gotten her the discreet Taser after the incident with Becky. It was a very powerful one. The kind that the police used. It shot probes at the assailant and didn't require her attacker to get close to her.

Feeling more confident with the weapon, she didn't say goodbye to Arthur as she fled her home.

~ She spoke briefly to the doorman and he showed her the log in book.

"That man, was not my Dad." She told him sternly. "Please call the apartment before you let _anyone_ on our floor. After what happened with that crazy woman, this was not a pleasant surprise." She barked at him. Suddenly going from the always sweet and kind woman, to an angry thing that would have his job over this.

The doorman was apologetic and told her it wouldn't happen again. She gave him a harsh look as she left the building.

~ The cafe she told her father to meet her at was simple and one she and Arthur never frequented because the service was so awful. The staff barely bringing them drinks before forgetting about them.

It was almost empty as she easily spotted her father by a big window.

"I got us a good seat, Bumble Bee." He said waving at her. His loud voice carrying through the cafe and making the few customers there look at this strange American.

"That's good." She said feeling embarrassed as she slid into the seat next to him.

A waiter came to them and asked what they would like in his native language. Her father grumbled and Ariadne asked politely for two coffees with cream in her elegant, well practiced French.

"Wow, Bumble Bee." Her father said as the waiter left them. "I'm impressed. You speaking that silly language."

"Not a silly language." She told him feeling you courage rise up. "I've lived in Paris for years now. It's important to learn the language of a place you live in."

"Well you need to tell that to all the folk coming into America who don't want to learn English." He laughed at her.

"Dad, what are you doing here?" She asked. Not laughing at his joke.  
"I came to see you. I wasn't invited to your wedding. I called your mother. She hasn't heard from you since the sentencing. Why didn't you tell us you landed a rich man?" He asked with an appreciative smile.  
"Is mom with you?" She asked worriedly. The lies she told her husband falling apart like a house of cards.

"Oh no. Still back home." He said as the waiter brought them their coffee.

Ariadne breathed a sigh of relief.

"Dad." She said after they had sipped their coffee in silence. "Tell me, what you want? Did you come for money? Is that it?"

"Don't you talk to your old man like that, damn it!" He said in a low, dangerous growl. His dark eyes turning evil and snake like.  
"Fact is, I used up a lot of my saving on the trip even if I flew coach. I think the least you could do is put the old man up for a few nights." He said returning quickly to his easy going manner.

"I'll give you cash for a hotel and reimburse you for the air fare." She told him curtly. Digging in her purse. Her hands easily finding cash she always had ready. Arthur insisting she carry cash for emergencies.

"Will six thousand be enough?" She asked handing over a large amount of neatly folded bills from a hidden pocket.

"That's nice of you." Her father said pulling the cash from her without hesitation. "I was hoping you could take the old man out for the day. We can see museums and I want to meet my son-in-law, Arthur."

"Dad, I haven't seen you since I was 9 and I haven't explained to my husband about Sammy or anything else. I want to keep it that way." She said bluntly. Proud of herself for standing up to him.

"You ashamed of your old man?" He barked at her. "With you money and fancy accent?" He added looking at her in disgust. "What makes you think I won't meet your husband anyway?" He growled.

"Because, that would be a mistake." She said coldly.


	3. Chapter 3

3.

**18 years ago...**

~ Ariadne's face hurt. She as laying in a stiff, uncomfortable bed and looking at the ceiling. Her face hurt and her eye was swollen shut from a blow she had gotten for screaming too much.

She hadn't been able to stop screaming at the horrible thing that had happened. A bad thing that had been all her fault. She had screamed because of the bad thing and hadn't stopped until she was struck in the face so many times, all she could do was throw her hands up to her face and wait for it to be over.

A light came on in the little room and Miss Annie was there.

"I can tell by the smell, you did it again." The old woman said.

Miss Annie was a foster mother and Ariadne felt ashamed as the old woman pulled back her bed covers to reveal Ariadne had wet the bed, again.  
"Damn 9 year old has no business wetting the bed." The old woman snapped as she pulled Ariadne to a sitting position and pulled the sheets and rubber pad off the narrow, twin bed.

Miss Annie wasn't a mean woman. Only an over worked one. The other girls in the room rose from their dreams at the sound of Miss Annie scolding Ariadne for the bed wetting. The old woman taking the little girl to the bathroom and drawing her a hot bath. Putting the wet sheets in the washing machine and fetching her clean pajamas.

Miss Annie hummed an old gospel tune as she bathed the little girl. She told Ariadne to dry off and put on clean pajamas that didn't belong to her, but were left here by the countless little souls that had been in Miss Annie's care.

"Now, help Miss Annie make this bed." She told Ariadne. The little girl clumsily pulling a fitted sheet on the corners. The sheets smelling of clean things. Not like the dirty bed pallet she had been forced to sleep on with Sammy. Here, she had her own little bed. Here, everything was clean, the heat was on and the food was ready.

"You climb in. Miss Annie cover you up." The old lady said.

Ariadne did as she was told. She always did as she was told in this place. The old woman covered her up and pulled a chair close to Ariadne.

"Miss Annie gonna stay right here." She said to the child. "Make sure you don't mess my bed up again."

Ariadne knew that the old woman didn't hate her. Wasn't punishing her or shaming her. The slow, steady gospel song coming out of the old woman as she watched over all the children in the room let her know Miss Annie cared. That Miss Annie was really just keeping an eye on her because she knew the little girl was scared.

"Sammy?" Ariadne whispered feeling sick.  
"Sammy's dead." Miss Annie said. "He's gone to be with God. You go to sleep. You dream about him."

**18 years later...**

~ Ariadne sat looking unflinchingly at her father as he pulled her hand into his. She felt her fingers take hold of the stun gun in her purse.

"I'm sorry, Ariadne. For everything that happened to you when you were little. I'm you Dad, I should have done more to protect you and Sammy." He said properly ashamed. "I was drinking all the time."

"I know your sorry. You said so in court." She said. "So why are you really here? Can't be just to visit. You could have visited me a along time ago, why now?"  
"Well, see in that article, it said that you had a daughter and a little boy. I wanted to see my grand kids." He said with a smile. Showing a set of rotting teeth. Ariadne pulled back.

"Their not my kids." She lied. "Their from Arthur's old girlfriend." She said. Amazed at how easy it was to lie in her refined accent. No a trace of her childhood in her speech.

"Well, your gonna have kids with this guy, right?" He asked hopefully.

Ariadne sensed her father didn't care about his potential grand children so much as he cared about her marriage to a wealthy man being secured by a child.

"How much do you want?" She asked sharply. She wanted all business with this ghost over and done with.

"Now, I know I have no right. But I want you to know I've quite drinking and I've found God." He told her with tears in his eyes. Ready made tears he probably had to think of a dead puppy to get flowing.

"How much do you want?" She hissed as she pulled her hand away from him.

"I need about 20 thousand to get myself a better truck. I can get some long hauling jobs and make some money. Then I can pay you back."

"I don't want you to pay me back. I want you to leave me alone." She said reaching into her purse and pulling free her check book. She shared and account with Arthur and she worried suddenly about the check she was about to write. Not about the amount, not if it was something she told him she needed or wanted, but about the name.

"I'll make it out to _cash_. You can take it to any bank when you get back to the states." She told him.

"Better make it 30 thousand." The old man said leaning in close. She could smell his bad breath.

"Fine." She said scrawling out the date and CASH in the pay to the order of line.

"Or even 40, that way I won't have to bunk up at your grandmas." He said moving his cap. "Get my own place."

She looked at him.  
"40 thousand dollars?" She asked.  
"Your good for it. I read in the paper your man is a damn millionaire. That he was well off even before his Daddy died." He said.

"That's not the issue." She said breathing hard. How could she explain that much money to Arthur?

"Well, maybe I'll just have a talk with the man." He said standing up.

"No!" She shouted standing up and blocking the older man from the door. "40 will be fine." She told him writing out his check before he could say 50.

~ Her father had wanted to go to museums and some art place he kept calling the 'LOVE' before Ariadne made excuses to leave him.

~ When she arrived at her building she told the building manager in a curt tone to never let anyone up to see them except for Cobb, Sarah, Sadie, Eames or Edwina. That after what happened with Becky, they wanted the manager to call them if an older, shaggy looking man tried to come back.

The manager was accommodating to the wealthy couple who owned the largest apartment in the building. The couple paying exorbitant fees for parking and other services. Ariadne making it clear they would move if this happened again.

~ "Where are the groceries?" Arthur asked once she got home.

Ariadne froze. Stupidly, she had forgotten the food she had told him was her reason for leaving.

"Oh, the store was really busy. It can wait." She told him lamely as Dominic was standing on his own, with the help of the couch.

His mother and father looking proudly over him as his sister wasn't at all impressed. _She _had been able to stand for a long time and it wasn't that special.


	4. Chapter 4

4.

~ Ariadne rarely dreamed anymore. Her time with the dream sharing had made her own dream world strange and elusive. She wondered why, after the meeting with her father, that she had never dreamed of Sammy the way Cobb had dreamed of Mal. The little boy with the willow thin body never invading her dreams like some kind of spectrum just out of grasp.

Until now.

That was what he was now. Only a spectrum. One she could see, but barely. A half-life person she couldn't touch or go near. A wild animal that would fly away if he knew she was watching him. If she was near.

It was snowing and dark outside. She was trying to be quite as she approached a thin little boy in the swings. Sammy's back was turned away from her. As he was trying to push himself harder on the swings. As if he was still waiting for his big sister to come back and push him.

Cat like, she stalked behind him. The adult Ariadne approaching the child her hadn't thought about in years.

Off in the distance, she could hear a knocking. A knocking that threatened to come and swallow them whole.

'_Don't scare him._' She thought. '_Don't scare him, or he will disappear._'

Sammy's thin little body was inadequately dressed against the winter night. He looked so sad and lonely on the dark play ground. The little ghost boy pushing his swing sadly. Not seeing her. The swing making a squeaking, squealing sound.

She would never let her children be out in the cold dressed as poorly as he was this night. Never allow them to be so thin or sad looking. She wanted to grab Sammy. Take the thin little boy back to the large apartment she shared with Arthur. A place where everything was warm and safe and there was lots of food and other kids to play with. Sammy would like it there. He could play with Darcy all day and color with her. She would fix him a big dinner and Arthur would call him his son because Arthur liked having sons.

All she had to do was grab him.

"Sammy?" She whispered as she was so close to seeing him. That menacing knocking coming closer and closer.

The thin little boy stopped his swinging and froze. His back to her so she couldn't see his face. He put both feet on the ground and stood up to face her. She could scarcely breath as he slowly turned around and she saw his face.

~ Ariadne woke up screaming.

A high, animal like scream that didn't stop as she woke to her darkened bedroom and didn't know where she was. Her mind still at the playground and the horrible sight of her brother's face in that haunted moment of time.

"Ariadne!" Came a voice from her side as she couldn't will herself to stop screaming. Her fear was too real, to close. The ghosts were all around her, and they had grown teeth.

"Ariadne." A voice said pulling her close as she cried and cried.

"Miss Annie!" She screamed and her nosed was buried into clean smelling pajamas and a strong lean body that would defend her against anything.

"No, baby." A man's voice said kindly. "It's Arthur."

"His face! Sammy!" She cried as she couldn't breath right though her tears. "Sammy!"

"It's alright." Arthur said as he shushed her. "It was just a dream."

~ Arthur had woken to a horrible screaming thing that ripped him from his death like sleep. His lovely wife was screaming like she was being attacked. A strange fear holding tightly to her as if it had claws.

She didn't seem to understand that he was there. That he was comforting her.

"Ariadne." He said smoothing out her hair as she cried herself out to exhaustion. "It's alright. It's alright."

She fell into a dreamless sleep after that. Her eyes shutting and her body drifting off before he could ask her who Sammy was.

~ "I think I'll have someone put a security system in the apartment." She announced early that morning as they were getting dressed.

"Been saying that forever, what made you change your mind?" Arthur asked.  
"Well, that solicitor." She said vaguely. "If the doorman let him in, who knows who else gets let in? We should have done it right after what happened with Becky."

Arthur hung his head slightly. He was still hurting over what his ex had done to his wife.

"Good idea." He said instead. "I'll go to the security office and see what they can do."

"No, you have to meet with your business manager." She told him. "Besides, I want to do it." She told him.

"Are you sure?" He asked. She nodded.

"Mrs. Mills has the children. I'll be fine. I'll even take that phaser you gave me for valentines day. One of the most romantic gifts I've ever gotten, by the way." She added in a sarcastic tone.

"It's a _Taser_ and be careful with it. Don't shock anyone who just cut's you off on the street." He said kissing her cheek as he tied his neck tie.

"Looks like something out of Star Trek to me." She said applying her make up in her vanity mirror.

"Your so cute when your trying to piss me off." He said leaning down for another kiss and she giggled.

"Who's Sammy?" He asked when he pulled away.

"What?" She asked with a scowl on her face.

"Last night you had a nightmare, kept saying the name Sammy. That and Miss Annie. Who are they?" He asked.

"I don't know. You know better then anyone how crazy dreams can be." She said. "So anyway, I'll price everything and maybe get them to come over right away."

"Alright." Arthur said with a shrug. The nightmare not important enough to press the issue. "I might be home late."  
"Going to see your mistress?" She asked and smiled at him.

"Oh, no." He chuckled as she stood and readjusted his tie. He kissed his wife softly and pulled her closer. "No, I'll see _her_ tonight." He whispered. She laughed at their privet joke.

She felt his hand wander to her belly. The pregnancy they had only told their close circle of friends about and was not pronounced enough to make their guest known. She smiled as she knew they were both thinking about the new baby.  
"How's he doing?" Arthur whispered.

"Fine." She told him. "He's fine. You better go. I have to make sure your other kids are fed and taken care of before Mrs. Mills gets here."

~ Ariadne's plan was brilliant. She would play off the money she had written to her Dad as apart of the security system. That she took out cash because they gave her a misquote.

The security people were very pleasant to her and happy to come and measure out their apartment for alarms. Even installing a very discreet security camera in the hallway outside the door. Hooking it up to a small monitor that could be hidden in the closet.

She was shocked how fast they had set everything up and even installed a series of panic buttons through out the house if someone forced their way in.

"Press this and our people will come over." The strong man told her in his sexy accent. Ariadne felt her blood pick up at the sight of him. Her body's reaction to the pregnancy she would take out on Arthur later.

The security man with the large biceps handed her the panic button the size of a lipstick. "But if someone breaks in, they will be met with a lot of loud noises. Trust me, burglars and the rest of them, they will not want to stay around when there are ear splitting alarms going off. The alarms will also turn on the lights and that will help to scare them off to." He said looking over Ariadne in a way that made her blush.

~ "That was fast." Arthur said wearily as she met him at the door with the baby and showed off their new security system. "What was the total damage?"  
She lied easily.

"Oh well, it was more then I thought. They gave me a misquote. I had to write a check for cash." She said and told him the new figure.  
"Whoa." He breathed looking over the security camera. "A lot more then something like this should have cost."

'_Of course he would know how much a security system cost._' She thought, angry at herself.

Arthur shook his head.  
"They did a great job." He concluded at last.

"I know. You would be so proud of me to." She said bouncing on her toes as she held Dominic. "The guy they sent over was totally hitting on me!" She said with a happy smile.

Arthur chuckled.  
"Well, that_ is_ good news." He laughed kissing her. "Dinner almost ready?"

"Yes. Just waiting on you." She told him sweetly. Happily tormenting the Point Man.

Arthur became suddenly serious.

"After dinner we need to talk about a few things." He whispered.


	5. Chapter 5

5.

~ Dominic and Darcy were not the slightest bit tired after dinner and their parents let them play in the living room as the adults talked in the kitchen.

"My father had borrowed heavily against the company before he died." Arthur said gravely. "Most of it he did on margin. It means he borrowed on credit. On the promise of what the company would do."

"Is that why were having such trouble selling it?" She asked looking worriedly at the kids playing.

"Yes. I didn't know until we went over the books today." He said soberly.

"How bad is it?" She asked feeling her stomach turn.

"Bad." He said.

"Are we going to lose the house?" She asked. The last thing in the world she wanted was to lose their home. Arthur had asked her to marry her in this apartment. This was their home. Their children's home.

"No." Arthur said reassuringly. "I bought this apartment a year before my father died. A few months before he took out all the bad loans. It's safe."

"My necklace." She said worriedly. That glittering birthday present that Arthur kept locked in the safe. Waiting for Darcy's wedding day. Her thoughts going to how they would pay for the kid's education. About the little one she was carrying now.

"No. Ariadne, were not going to lose anything. Everything well be just like it was, I promise. Only, with the way things are, I have only two options. I can sell, and the company will be dismantled and all the workers will be out of a job. Or, I can keep it going and hope it will turn around. Make that profit it hasn't made in five years."

"I don't want to see all those people lose their jobs." She told him.

"I know, I don't either. But if we try to keep the company afloat, we will have to move to New York. On a more permanent basis." He told her gravely.

"Arthur." She whispered. "We live here in Paris. Our lives are here. Cobb and Sarah are here. Eames and Sadie are here. Your work in dream extraction is here."

"I know." He whispered worriedly. "But those are our options."

"There has to be another way. Teleconferencing. It will be like your in the same room with these people." She told him.

"I already have Edwina going back and forth between here and New York almost every week to deliver signed documents. There are things that I can not do from here." He explained sadly.

"Oh, Arthur." She wanted to cry. This was worse then she could have imagined. "All in the _hopes_ that the company would turn a profit soon."

"I have a capable business manager. He has already worked wonders since I hired him last year. If we move, it would only be for a year or two." He told her taking her hand. "Edwina would come with us and Cobb and Eames could visit."

"Sounds like you already made up your mind." She said bitterly.

"Ariadne, I've walked the floors of my father's company. Those people are scared of losing their jobs. Some of them have been there 30 years. They can't get another job easily. Their people with families just like ours. I know I can do this. I'm asking you to please... please do this for me."

**18 years ago...**

~ "Custody will go to the state in the interest of the minor child." The judge said. Ariadne jumped as the gavel banged harshly and the parties involved stood at the bailiffs command. The family court was packed with people and she didn't even get a chance to see her parents before the social worker pulled her away.

~ The next few days were like limbo. A place with no up or down. A place where she was sent to wait. She got up out of bed and ate the food Miss Annie gave her. Went back to sleep and missed Sammy.

At night Miss Annie was sit in her chair and hum her gospel music. Chasing away specters and Ariadne stopped wetting the bed.

This place was not a home at all, but a big gray building the kids all called the "Docs". You were sent to the "Docs" when your parents couldn't take care of you and no one else wanted you. That was how it was explained to her by the other kids. All of them dirty, neglected lambs who looked unlovable.

Ariadne shrived on the busy playground and wished Sammy was there. Wished she had his little hand in hers. She didn't want to play with the other kids. The other girls with their battered, Barbie dolls and their dirty talk about men. She didn't want to be around anyone. She wanted to be all alone. The other kids were mean in the way all kids are when they were around a weaker child who couldn't fight back.

~ Sundays were different. On Sundays, Miss Annie snapped everyone out of bed and hustled the girls into a bath. Washing their hair and bodies till everyone shone. She dressed them all in tired looking dresses and the boys in, ill fitting, but clean clothes.

They were all under strict instructions to behave as they sat in church and then they had a party at the Docs. People would come. Couple's mostly, to see them. The healthy looking boys were picked by farmers. Older farmers who's own children where grown and who had left home with too much work to be done.

No one wanted the girls. Girls were useless. They cost too much money to keep and not for the poor community.

Ariadne felt Miss Annie pull her close.  
"Baby, you go talk to that couple there. Tell them how smart you are and all them books I seen you reading. Tell them about how you get good grades. Tell them how you dress yourself and don't say a word about Sammy. You do what Miss Annie says. Go on." She ordered patting Ariadne on the butt.

Ariadne did as she was told. She always did what Miss Annie said. Her fear of meeting new people tempered by the fact that she would be sleeping on her clean little bed tonight no matter what. That Miss Annie would hum her to sleep no matter what these people decided to do.

They were no farm couple. They looked out of place in the crowd of weary adults who worked too hard and endured too many hardships.

"Hello." Ariadne said to them. The lady, her hair a pretty silver smiled at her. Ariadne was surprised at the sound of her own voice. She hadn't used it in so long, she marveled that it still worked.

"Well, hello." The lady said pleasantly as her husband looked grumpy in his nicely tailored three piece suit. "What's your name?" The lady asked.  
"Ariadne." The child said feebly. She didn't know what else to say. The couple seeming to be waiting for her to go on. "I get really good grades and I can dress myself."

The couple laughed at her and asked her about what she liked best about school. It suddenly became so easy to talk to them. They wanted to know about the books she read and what she wanted to be when she grew up.

"An architect?" The older man grumbled. "What kind of job is that? The last one we hired fleeced me good. He designed our sun room and did a poor job of it."

"Hugo." The old lady scolded gently. The old man leaned closer to Ariadne. Beneath his sour expression, his eyes were very kind.  
"Think you can draw me a better sun room?" He asked the little girl.

Ariadne nodded and started coloring. She drew the best room for the sun to live in that she knew how.

"Why do you want to be an architect?" The older man asked.

"I like to think about the people who will live there." She told him.

When she was done, her drawing was of a bright and cheery room. Nice furniture and the sun lived there.

The old couple laughed at her drawing and she worried she had made it wrong.

"Little girl, this is the best sun room I've ever seen." He told her. "I'll give you 20 dollars for it." He told her.

Ariadne nodded in shock as the older man produced money with ease and had her sign her work.

The old couple went away that day, but Miss Annie told her she did a good job and they would be back for her. Ariadne nodded and held her money tightly in her fist.


	6. Chapter 6

6.

~ "New York? How _barbaric_!" Sadie proclaimed over lunch. She, Ariadne, Sarah and Edwina were out at a small cafe and enjoying the change of seasons. The rush of interesting tourists flooding the city provided a perfect chance to people watch. She broke the news of Arthur's company to them hesitantly.  
"Why would you want to go back to the States? You haven't lived there since you were fifteen." The leggy, spider woman said.  
"It's not forever." Ariadne told her. We can call, and you guys can come and visit." Ariadne offered lamely. Although a part of her knew that was doubtful. "Arthur says it will be a year or two at most."

"Well, I shall tell you what will happen." Sadie said lighting a foul smelling cigarette. Her smoke puffing out like a dragon. "You will arrive in New York and forget your friends here. You shall become one of those crazy socialite people, and your children will turn into psychopaths. You need to stay in France. People care about their children in this county."  
"American parents care about their children." Sarah said patiently. "Cobb and I will come to visit you, and I'm sure the kids will love living in the city for a few years. It will give them something to brag about later."

"Well what about the baby?" Sadie huffed. "You want to have your baby in a filthy American hospital?"

Sarah rolled her eyes.

"I'm sure was can find a decent enough hospital to have him in." Ariadne told them.

Ariadne's head was hurting just from the idea of leaving the city she loved. It was the city she had gone to school in, fallen in love in and had her child in. The best parts of her life were here.

"I wish we didn't have to go." She whispered.

She saw him before the others did. Those worn jeans, the working man's shirt. The soiled and well used ball cap. She almost choked on her water as she spotted the woman with him.

"I gotta go." Ariadne said as she abandoned her friends and went to her parents. Their was a large crowd of people that swallowed them up and hopefully, her friends didn't see her talking to these strange people.

Her estranged mother didn't recognize her at first when she approached them. It had been so many years and Ariadne knew she had changed drastically.

"What are you doing here?" She breathed keeping well away from her less then well groomed mother.  
"Oh, Chuck!" The bedraggled woman cried. "Look at her!"

Her mother made to hug her, but Ariadne stepped away and put up her hands. A repulsion gripping her at being touched by this woman.

"You don't want me to hug you?" Her mother asked. Showing an overly hurt face. A face Darcy would make when she didn't get her way and she wanted to guilt her Mama or Papa into something. A tacit that didn't work on Architect.

Ariadne looked over the woman she had been born to. A far cry from being dead like she had told Arthur, she was fat and no longer worked at her appearance. Her dark hair was riddled with gray and pulled up in a sloppy braid. She was short like Ariadne but looked much older then her 57 years. Ariadne saw very little of the woman she used to know. She saw even less of herself in this person. How could she even be related to them? Much less have them for parents. She looked nothing like them.

"They let you out?" Ariadne barked at the woman. A tragic sense of injustice filling her. "Why did they let you out?"

"It's been almost 20 years." Her mother said. "Ariadne, you look so beautiful. Chuck says your married now and your doing really good. That you went to college and everything. I'm so proud of you." She said walking zombie like pace to hug her daughter.

Ariadne stepped away from the woman and looked worried over to the cafe. Sadie, Sarah and Edwina were all staring at them. Sarah and Edwina looking worried.

Sadie looking intrigued.

"Lets not talk here." Ariadne hissed.

~ Her parents had chosen a nice restaurant and made Ariadne order for them in French like it was some kind of parlor trick. Her mother even clapping like Ariadne had done some kind of stage performance.

"Why are you here?" Ariadne asked once they were alone.  
"Well, Chuck said you were married to a good man. A man who's well off." Her mother said in her child like voice.  
"If your here for more money, I have none. My husband's company is in trouble. I can't afford to shell out another 40 grand." Ariadne snapped angrily at the woman.

"She gave you 40 thousand dollars?" Her mother hissed to her father. The disheveled woman's personality changing from fairy tale sweetness to enraged witch. Chuck had the decency to look ashamed of himself.

Her mother shook her head and went back to her daughter.

"You should have known you can't give your Dad money. From now on, you give the money to me, bumble bee." Her mother said.

"Don't call me that!" Ariadne shouted.

"She's ashamed of us Miranda." Her father said as the couple's dress and manners were drawing looks from the people in the restaurant. "Doesn't want us to meet her husband. Lying to the old man about her kids. Doesn't want us to see our own grand kids." He told he diverting blame.

"I want to see my grand kids." Miranda said in a child like, demanding voice. "I have a right..." She slammed her hand on the table. "To see them." The old woman looked at the Architect in a dangerous way. Like she was capable of anything.

Ariadne knew she was capable of terrible things.

"You take one step near my children, and you will be arrested." Ariadne warned.

Meeting her mother's crazed looking eyes without flinching.

"I won't let you hurt you hurt them like you did Sammy." She told her.

**12 years ago...**

~ Hugo and Victoria Lewis did adopt Ariadne. They were a much older couple who had had a grown son. The young man had died ten years ago while on a rock climbing trip in South America.

It had been some kind of fever that took their only child. Since his death, the couple had felt depressed and a friend suggested adoption. They were hesitant at first. They were not young anymore and older kids were sure to have all kinds of problems, but Ariadne had been different. She was smart and quite. She didn't run around or need much looking after. The child had an independent streak about her.

Ariadne came to their home a few weeks after meeting them and found she had a beautiful, little room ready for her. It was decorated with toys she was slightly too old for. But she told them she loved it and delighted in the warmth and safety they provided.

Their home was big and located in a very exclusive part of upstate New York. Her new parents took her to their country club and on cruises.

She went to a privet school where she excelled. Learning French and computers. Loving the art classes that her adoptive parents insist she take.

Soon enough, she wholly forgot that little girl in the snow. The dark playground with a little boy in the swings.

But Ariadne kept a strange distance from the couple. She was theirs, but she never truly belonged to them. She wouldn't allow Victoria to baby her or care for her like a real mother. Every morning, Ariadne dressed herself, made her bed, fixed her own breakfast and packed her lunch. She never had to be roused for school like other children.

In the afternoons, she would come home, do her homework and defrost whatever chicken or beef they would have for dinner. It was more like having a pleasant house guest then a child.

~ "You will love Paris." Victoria was saying as they announced plans to move abroad a few years later. "France is such a warm country. Excellent climate."

~ She did love France. Her adoptive father wanting her to attend the best schools and even have a social season like it was done in his day.

A rebellious, independent teenager by then, Ariadne put her foot down.

"No one does that anymore!" She cried as Victoria looked heart broken.

If she had know how quickly that world would end, she would have dressed in the puffy dress. She would have danced with some ugly son of a Duke or Earl and done what ever her loving adoptive parents asked.


	7. Chapter 7

7.

~ Ariadne felt like there was a whole in her body as she rode the elevator up to her apartment. It was difficult to breath as strange new pain inside her hurt.

She had left her parents after threatening her mother. A strange sort of victory taking hold of her and making her feel oddly better about everything. A belated revenge that didn't seem to satisfy. She had been so happy before. Why had they come back into her life? She had mercifully forgotten about them. Even forgetting about Sammy.

She breathed deeply as her head started to spin. She felt deflated of air somehow. Seeing her mother and father again had taken something out of her. Had wounded her.

'_Maybe now they will go away. The sooner we move to New York, the better._' She thought. Maybe she could convince Arthur to move the family right away. He still owned the luxury apartment that he grew up in. He stayed there when he went to the city on business trips.

She sighed in relief as the lift dinged her to the right floor. She had let herself in and didn't take in her surrounding before calling out:  
"I'm back, Mrs. Mills! Sorry it took so long. I stayed out later with the girls then I thought."

"Sadie and Sarah called." Arthur's voice came back. "Said you left them over an hour ago. Went to talk to some strange homeless couple on the street and that you left with them."

Ariadne froze. She didn't turn around as her mind raced with how much Arthur knew. How much he _thought_ he knew. How much could she give away. Her delicate web of lies coming undone.

Slowly, she turned around to see her husband. His face was kind and concerned. His dress shirt sleeves rolled up and his tie loosened slightly. He wasn't angry or upset. He was her friend, her lover, her husband.

"The bank called me to. Something about a strange man coming in to cash a very large check sign by you. A check made out to cash. They wanted to let me know about it because it's not like us." He added.

She said nothing as her heart beat faster and faster. Her web coming undone. Unraveling and plunging her down.

"You want to tell me what's going on? Or do you plan to tell me more lies about how the security company charged you four times more then they quoted?" He said curtly.

Ariadne was breathing hard as the pain in her body gripped her tightly and she started seeing black spots before her.

'_Don't faint._' She told herself before becoming dizzy. Her world turning upside down as she vaguely heard Arthur calling her name before she hit the floor.

**Seven years ago...**

~ She was sitting in a lawyer's office. Her adoptive parents funeral was only a few days ago and she was still in shock that the kind, old couple had died so suddenly. A tragic house fire that had burned their lovely little home to the ground while she was out with her new school friends, Sadie and John.

"It seems you have been left more then enough money to finish school with." The lawyer told her at last. He had detailed all of their estate. Much of it going to her and other family members.

The soon to be Architect was weighted down with the guilt that in the past few years, she had not been the loving daughter she had promised herself to be. She had been too independent a teenager. Too bold.

Victoria had cried when she announced she wanted to move out on her own.

"Is this because of some boy?" The old lady had asked. "Because you want to be with him? It's alright. A pretty girl like you should be dating."  
"No. It's not because of any boy." Ariadne said and that was the truth.

She hadn't dated much and avoided intimate relations. Her fear of certain things getting the better of her although she never let it show. Never spoke a word about it. Just like Miss Annie said.

"No, I just want to be on my own." She told them.

Her adoptive father had rented her a nice apartment in a trendy and safe part of the city.  
"You can walk to the college from here." He told her kissing her forehead sweetly. "I think you grew up too soon, Mouse." He said.

She smiled at the affectionate nick name he called her. No doubt recalling the times she sneaked into the kitchen for food when she first came to live with them. Always scared they would be mad if she ate their food, she took small portions of things so they wouldn't notice. Hugo catching her one night and sitting down with her. Cutting up cheese for her to eat and claiming they thought they had an oddly cleaver little mouse.

Ariadne burst out crying at the memory. Right their in the lawyer's office. No one would call her 'Mouse' again.

~ Sadie and John had comforted her a great deal. Always dragging her to places to have fun. Always introducing her to new people. The leggy spider woman working hard to keep the future Architect from pulling inside herself too much. Something for which she always remained grateful.

~ She kept her grades up. She was Miles' prized pupil and the two of them would have long talks after class about anything. Miles reminding her of Hugo. The teacher telling her that her parents must be so proud of her.

Ariadne saying nothing.

~ Then one day, Ariadne was rushing from class to see Miles beckoning her. A man she had never seen before by his side. He introduced her to Mr. Cobb and her journey into dreams began.

Her intellect was challenged in a way it had never been before. The men around her treated her well and she found her mind and imagination stretched to the point she didn't think she could embrace any more new ideas.

Then, there was Arthur. He challenged her and taught her the dream world. She found herself trusting him. He would listen to her in that quite, easy way of his. Everything about their relationship was easy.

She had meant what she said about not knowing sex could be so wonderful. To her, sex had always been uncomfortable and unpleasant. Their remaining week on the first level of the dream had been an eye opener. She had never been with a man like this. Never devoted herself to making love all day.

Her body reveling in the sheer, addictive joy of it.

How easy it was to be with him. To trust him, to love him.

The lies started almost at once. She had lied when she told him that she had a boyfriend who she had slept with before him. The reality was, Ariadne had never had a boyfriend. The entire world of romantic love new to her.

**Present Day...**

~ "Ariadne?" Arthur's voice came to her.

Her eyes fluttered open as she was looking at a ceiling. The glaring, white ceiling of a hospital.

"What happened?" She croaked weakly. Her body felt drained and sedated.

"You passed out." He whispered. He took a deep breath and held her hand. "You started bleeding and I had the ambulance take you to the hospital. I was worried you were having a miscarriage."

"Oh, God!" She cried trying to sit up. "The baby?"

"The baby is fine." He told her holding her hand tightly. "I had them check him. The doctor want's you on bed rest for a few days. Says your under too much stress."

She cried then as her husband rubbed her back. The Point Man climbing into the hospital bed with her. Whispering sweet things in her ear. Chasing the specters away.


	8. Chapter 8

8.

~ Ariadne slept peacefully with Arthur curled around her. His long body protecting her as she woke in the middle of the night and wondered where she was. He asked her no more questions about the money or the strange couple as he soothed her back to sleep. He was just grateful she and the baby were alright.

~ Sarah and Cobb came bright and early the next morning.  
"I was so worried." Sarah said giving the Architect a warm hug. Ariadne didn't say much as Sarah showed her a video of the kids she taken with her smart phone just an hour ago. Darcy waving and telling her she missed her. To get better soon and she wanted to get some new cereal she just saw a commercial for.

Phillipa and Darcy going back to playing Barbies and telling James to leave them alone.

Ariadne laughed at the video of Dominic pulling all the cushions off of Cobb's sofa and chair, and smiling like he had done something wonderful.  
"That's his favorite thing to do." Ariadne said noticing for the first time that Dominic had her smile.

"I believe it." Sarah said as Cobb and Arthur talked outside.

"Arthur wants to keep me in the hospital." She whispered to Sarah.

"He's worried about you. About the baby." Sarah whispered back. "He's already postponing the move until after you deliver. Doctor says it's too stressful."

Ariadne nodded. She was grateful Arthur was taking charge of everything. Despite being so independent, she like to have him take care of her when things got to be too much. He was so good at being in charge and she felt so protected and safe.

"It must have really scared him." Ariadne whispered.  
"It did." Sarah said gently. "He thought he was going to lose you."

Ariadne blinked back tears. She hated hurting Arthur. He loved her so much.

"Who was that couple we saw you leave with the other day?" Sarah asked.

Ariadne snapped back to reality. She glared at the pretty nanny that was Cobb's lover.

"You told Arthur about them?" She accused coldly.

"I had to. You left us to talk to some strangers, and you left with them. We were worried sick. Sadie even followed you to the restaurant and heard you tell that woman to stay away from your kids. Something about money as well." Sarah said as gently as she was able.

"You should have just minded your own business!" Ariadne hissed at her.

Sarah pulled back like she had been hit.

"Were those people threatening you?" Sarah asked. "Because that's what it looked like. That's what Arthur is scared happened. He thinks they threatened you and you gave them money and they wanted more."

"Just drop it." Ariadne almost barked.

"What's going on in here?" Came Arthur's voice.

"Sarah was just leaving." Ariadne said not looking at her friend. Hating herself because Sarah was a real friend and she knew that she cared about her.

~ Ariadne didn't say much to Arthur after Sarah and Cobb left. The Point Man not pressing the issue or forcing her to tell him. They watched TV for awhile. A mindless sitcom they only pretended to be interested in.

"How long am I going to have to stay here?" She asked at last.

"Doctor wants you on bed rest for a few more days." Arthur said tonelessly.

~ Sadie breezed into her room the next morning caring a vase of flowers and wanting to give the Architect a manicure.  
"Do not upset her." Arthur warned the leggy spider woman.

Sadie waived the Point Man off and the two of them enjoyed a rousing session of abusing contestants on a reality show as Sadie painted Ariadne's nails.

"So, the _tyrant_ says I must not upset you." Sadie cooed as she finished Ariadne's toe nails. "But I'm dieing to know. Who were those ugly people you were hanging out with the other day?"

Ariadne sighed.  
"People... I used to know. From before I moved to France." She told her.

"Good people?" Sadie asked. Leading Ariadne into easy answers.  
"No. Not good people."

"What made them bad people?" Sadie asked indifferently.

"They didn't take care of their kids. They... they would hurt their kids." Ariadne said. The Architect half afraid of the words coming out of her mouth.  
"How many kids did they have?" Sadie asked as the leggy woman painted little flowers on Ariadne's nails.

"Two. A boy and a girl." Ariadne said feeling a pain well up in her chest at the memory of Sammy. A sweet little boy who was too thin.

"Where are the kids now? Are they alright?" Sadie asked.  
"The girls is okay. She's fine." Ariadne said truthfully. "Happy." She added.

"The boy?"

She couldn't say it. Saying Sammy was dead, saying out loud, almost felt like a betrayal. Would make it real. She would never be able to bring that little boy in from the snow if she said it.

"What happened to him?" Sadie asked.

"He... he was crying one day. It was cold outside and it was a Sunday. He was hungry and he got mad when he was cold and hungry. His sister tired to keep him calm, but Sammy wouldn't calm down. Their Dad was yelling and everyone was screaming." Ariadne said. Telling the story as if is was just that. A story. No more real then 'The Cat in the Hat'.

"Did they hurt him? Sammy? Did those people hurt him for crying too much?" Sadie asked gently.

Ariadne nodded.

"His mom hit him a lot. She locked him in a closet for a long time. His sister, she loved him, and she tried to get him food, but her mother said he was being punished. She could hear him knocking on the door of the closet for days and then, he wasn't knocking anymore." Ariadne said numbly. Tears falling out of her eyes.

"Why not? Why wasn't he knocking?"

"His sister pried the door open in the middle of the night and got him out. His mouth was bleeding from where he had tried to eat the wooden parts of the floor and the door. He was so hungry. She begged her mother to take him to the hospital, but she wouldn't."

"Why not?"

"She said he would be fine. But he wasn't fine." Ariadne said coldly. Her story wanting to draw to it's natural end.

"What happened to him? What happened to Sammy?" Sadie asked

"He died. The police came and their mother was arrested. So was their Dad." She got 20 years, but she got out early.

"What happened to the girl?"

"She was adopted by a nice old couple." Ariadne said.

Sadie nodded.  
"What happened to her when Sammy was locked in the closet?" She asked.

'_It's only a story._' Ariadne told herself.

Easier to imagine that the children were not real.  
"She begged her Dad to let him out. He was drinking and he hit her a lot. One night, it was worse then the other times. She was screaming because Sammy was dieing and she wanted to take him to the hospital."

"What happened to her?"

"He hit her in the face till she didn't scream anymore. She just laid there, till it was over."

"Till _what_ was over?" Sadie asked.

Ariadne blinked. She couldn't say it. She wanted to throw up. The memory making her sick as she was shaking.  
"Did the father rape her? Is that what happened?" Sadie asked.

Ariadne nodded. She wasn't the one who said it. So it wasn't real somehow. Still apart of the story, still safe and far away.

"Did the police arrest him?" Sadie asked.

"Not for that. For Sammy. The mother confessed to locking Sammy in the closet. He was charged for accessory."

"Did the little girl ever tell anyone what he did?" Sadie asked going back to painting Ariadne's toe nails.

"No. She never said it. Never said Sammy's name after the sentencing. She just forgot."

"Until your parents came back, looking for you." Sadie concluded with ease.

Ariadne nodded.

"Arthur doesn't know. He can never know." The Architect whispered.

"I won't tell him, but he won't think less of you if he knew. He loves you." Sadie told her.

Ariadne shook her head. Her hands trembling as she wiped the tears from her eyes.

~ After Sadie left, Ariadne felt exhausted and she slept. Her dreams took her back to that snow covered playground in the middle of the night. Sammy swinging and asking her if he could go with her.

She woke up to feel Arthur in the bed with her again. His body molded around hers protectively. He never could stand to sleep without her.

He was a fellow child, forgotten and unloved till they had found each other.

She wanted to wake him up. To apologize for everything. Every lie she had ever told him. The secrets she had kept.

She knew Sadie would never breath a word of what she said to the Point Man. Sadie didn't embellish in gossip. The leggy spider woman was too bored with idle gossip and didn't care for it. She didn't share in it, or listen to it.

Ariadne's secrets were safe.


	9. Chapter 9

9.

~ "It'll be nice to be home." Ariadne said as he husband drove them carefully back to their neighborhood.

"Yes, it will be." He agreed. He had stayed with her the four days she was in the hospital. The Architect, finally able to leave when the doctor preformed another sonogram and told her the baby was fine and healthy. She was released with strict instruction not to do anything stressful until the birth. She was under doctor's orders to live as stress free a life as was possible.

Arthur was scowling at the road as they neared the building. He looked a little mad as the silence between them seemed to weigh them down.

"You know, I don't care about the money. You know that right?" He said. "Whatever those people wanted, you could have let me deal with it."

She didn't say anything as they drove on.  
"Was that what they wanted? More money?" He asked. He was not able to keep his burning questions inside him anymore.

"Why didn't you tell me about them? Who are they?" He asked.

"The doctor says your not supposed to upset me." Ariadne told him in a ghost like whisper. Her eyes catching her reflection in the car window. A transparent girl who looked too sad.

~ Arthur called Mcline after Ariadne went to their bedroom for a nap. The kids would be dropped of later.

"I need a comprehensive back ground search." He said.

"On who?" Mcline asked.

Arthur looked over the canceled check for 40 thousand dollars. The child like scribal of a name carved on the other side and told Mcline the name.

"He was recently in Paris. I want to know everything about about him." He said sternly.

~ The dossier Mcline sent, the back ground check on the man who had chased the check Ariadne wrote, sat on the kitchen counter.

Arthur was afraid to touch it. It was thick and foreboding. Mcline even telling Arthur maybe it was best not to read it.

"Sometimes it's best not to go mucking around for skeletons in closets." The old lawyer had said.

Arthur stared at the thick folder. It was stacked with witness statements, pictures, police reports and newspaper clippings. He knew Ariadne was involved in there somehow, but he couldn't bare to see how.

He had to know he decided suddenly. It was late at night and it had taken him a long time to steel enough courage to open it. His wife was in their bedroom. Sadie had dropped by unannounced to visit her. The Point Man grumbling that the Architect needed to rest. The leggy spider woman ignoring him.

Arthur left the two women alone and returned his focus to the file.

"What's that?" Came a voice that was like nails on a chalk board to him.

The Point Man felt his head hurt as he looked up to see Sadie.

"Is Ariadne alright?" He asked her instead of answering the question.

Sadie's gaze was fixed solely on the dossier on the table.  
"She is fine. What is that?" She asked. Her long arms snatching the file off the table before Arthur could reach it.

"None of your business!" Arthur almost shouted. He had never wanted to hit a woman so much in his life.

Sadie opened the folder and stayed out of Arthur's reach with a gazelle like grace despite her high heels.

"This doesn't seem to be _your_ business either." She accused shutting the folder after looking over the documents there.

Arthur opened his mouth to retort, and closed it again. For a moment, Sadie didn't look like herself. She didn't appear to be the selfish, spoiled woman who aggravated him like another Eames.

"Why are you poking around in the past?" She asked holding the folder in one hand. Her eyes cutting into the Point Man.

"I need to know. I need to know who those people are." He said.  
"Will it help Ariadne if you know who they are?"

"It might." He said defensively.

"No. It will only hurt her. It will not help you either. It will not help you to be burdened with the things no one can change. She did not tell you about it for a reason. She has moved on. She is happy not thinking about the past." She said. The tall woman suddenly very wise.

"You know, don't you?" He asked. "Who they were."

"Yes. Bad people from when she was little. A history that she can not change so she moved one. She was very happy until they showed up."

"Who are they?" He barked.  
"Not important. If she wants to tell you, she will. She did not tell you because it's a part of an old life. It's not who she is anymore." Sadie told him.

"I have to know so I can protect her from them." Arthur said defensively.

Sadie casually strolled to the fireplace. The gas burners lighting a merry fire in a few seconds with no kindling or matches. Sadie lit a cigarette from the fire, and threw the file into the flames.

"Do not ask her about this. Let it go. She is happier not remembering. It hurts her too much to remember that old life." She said as Arthur watched the file burn.

He was shocked he had allowed the leggy woman to do that. A part of him also relived the file was burning, never to be read.  
"Tell me, how do I keep her safe from those people if I can't know who they are?" He said watching the flames lick the paper. Burning it away.

"Not to worry. Eames and I have it taken care of. Those ugly tourists will not come back. I can not believe they came to Paris dressed like that. Of all the nerve. I don't blame Ariadne for hating them. I would hate people who dressed like that to." She said more to herself then to the Point Man as she pulled out a compact and checked her heavy makeup.

"She was asking about you. Go and see her. Ask her nothing about this. Let it be over." Sadie said as she stalked out of the apartment on her long legs.

~ In their big, comfortable bed, Ariadne watched the previews for next weeks reality show. Sadie had made her laugh as the spider woman made fun of all the contestants. The Architect enjoying a session of being a mean girl.

"Sadie left." Arthur said coming into the room as she snapped off the TV.

"It's been nice to see her." Ariadne told him.

She was feeling good lately. The ghosts of that playground fading away with the presence of her husband and friends.

"Are you mad she's been around so much?" Ariadne asked.

"No." Arthur said honestly. "She's your friend. She makes you happy." He told her from their closet as he undressed for bed.  
"Kids asleep?" She asked as her husband crawled into bed with her. His lips seeking out her forehead.

"Oh yes. Busy day." He told her. "You were in bed and I had to play mommy." He told her with a laugh.

"Welcome to my world." She said as she burrowed deeper into her husbands arms. He turned off the light and breathed in the smell of her shampoo.

"Ariadne, I won't press the issue, but you know that you can tell me anything. You know that right?" He said softly.

She said nothing. The fear of ghosts rising up from their graves filling her.

"I know." She said at last.

"Do you want to tell me anything?" He asked.

The ghosts were making her body hurt. Gripping her in their cold claws. A past she could not change. Wounds long healed threatening to rip open and bleed.

"No." She said sadly. "There is nothing I want to talk about."

The ghosts retreated. Their power gone as she laid her in husbands arms. The snowy playground too far away to remember as she thought only of getting the kids dressed in the morning.

Darcy's cereal and Dominic feeding himself oatmeal. Her husband's hand running over their unborn baby in the way that always made her smile.

A feeling of safety and warmth filling her as she drifted into happy dreams.


	10. Chapter 10

10.

~ Eames spotted the odd looking couple before Sadie did.  
"_That's them_?" He asked in shock. "Can't be Ariadne's parents. She's too cute to come from them."

"You think Ariadne is cuter then me?" Sadie almost shouted.  
"How could _anyone_ be cuter then you?" The Forger said leaning over to kiss the spider woman.

"That's them. Remember, do it just like I said." She told him.

~ "Excuse me?" A man's voice called out to Chuck and Miranda. The couple turned and saw a handsome but unfortunately dressed couple approach them.

"Who are you?" Chuck said looking with disgust at the Forger's vintage style. At Sadie's glam girl look.

The leggy woman lighting a perfumed cigarette as she watched.

The four of them were in a deserted ally and none of the passing pedestrians cared to look at them.

"Were friend's of Ariadne." Eames told the couple.

"Our daughter." Chuck said.

"No. Not anymore. You see we did a little research on the two of you. Turns out there was a long standing court order for you to stay away from her. No exceptions." The Forger said rolling up his sleeves as Sadie handed him a crow bar.

"What are you doing?" Chuck tried to say before the Forger sent a swift and brutal hit to the man's knee caps.

The sound of breaking bones ringing out as Miranda tried to scream. Sadie reaching her first and pulling her hair.

"Shut up!" The leggy woman hissed. Balancing impressively on her high heeled shoes, holding a cigarette and fighting with a woman all at once. A skill all women need to master.

"You fucker!" Chuck screamed as the dirty man cried on the ground.

"Now, I can call the police. You can spend a few years in a prison here in France." Eames said. "When you get out, I'll visit you again. Or, you can go back to the shit hole you climbed out of and never come back."

Chuck was whimpering as Sadie pulled Miranda's hair harder.  
"If you come back to Paris, if I find out you contacted my friend, her husband or their kids, I'll come back. I'll shove this bar so far up you ass the other prisoners won't even want that hole." Eames said.

The Forger's eyes were oddly manic and possessed. As if he were not the loveable man he showed the rest of the world.

"Understand?" Eames asked softly.

Chuck only whimpered.

With a sharp, precise blow, the crow bar struck Chuck's arm. The crack of bone breaking ringing out.  
"Say you understand." Eames growled. His eyes dangerous and deadly.  
"I... Oh shit! I understand!" Chuck cried curling up into a ball on the ground.

"Excellent." Eames said. The friendly Forger snapping back. "Here you go baby." He said tossing the crow bar to Sadie.

The leggy woman let go of Miranda's hair, and neatly caught the crow bar. The slovenly old woman tried to scramble away and Sadie hit her twice on the back.

"That was for Sammy." She said still holding her cigarette. "Don't let me catch your kind of trash in this city again." She added.

"You two had better be on the first flight home. As soon as your out of the hospital." Eames said as he buttoned his jacket back up. "If your not, I'll come back."

"And if you go to the police, I'll tell them about your raping your daughter and killing your son and trying to extort money from the child you are not allowed to see." Sadie added before taking a long drag of her cigarette and stalking away from the crime scene on her too long legs.

~ Eames and Sadie left the crying couple alone in the ally, and vanished into a crowd of people.

"You looked really sexy back there." The Forger said as Sadie lit another perfumed cigarette.  
"Of course I did!" Sadie barked.  
"I love how you can do everything in 6 inch heels." He added. Obviously feeling frisky.  
"A _real_ woman can do anything in heels!" She told him as she stalked down the street.

"They can never know about this. Never tell them what I told you, or what we did." She told him after awhile.  
"I know." Eames said. "What we do for our friends, eh?"

"I know, it's almost not even worth it. Arthur and Ariadne are so ridiculous sometimes. They way their are just so in _love_. I want to get a camera and throw it at them." Sadie told him.  
"Tell me about it. I thought he was boring before. Now, all he ever does is talk about his wife and his kids. I have to pretend to be interested in all that. It's worse then Cobb talking about his kids. I'm always having to lie to them and say the little brats are cute." He added with a roll of his eyes.

"When will people learn that babies are boring?" Sadie asked him.  
"I don't know, Darling." he said sadly. "I just don't know."

**~ END ~**

**I know you were all wanting Ariadne to tell Arthur everything about her childhood and he would say all the right things and then have kicked some ass.**

** But I'm a firm believer that once you have put something behind you and gone on with your life, it's counter productive to keep revisiting it. **

** I think it's better that Ariadne didn't tell Arthur because it would have just opened up old wounds and hurt her. It would have also have hurt Arthur to know them. I think it wouldn't have helped him to know the truth about her past because it was something she couldn't change and it's not something he could make right. **

** This will not be the last A&A story I write about this little family. **


End file.
